Inspiration and Dark Obsession
by TVH Bookfan
Summary: In 1960s New York, Elizabeth Bennet is a rebellious young woman trying to make it as an actress, and William Darcy is a controversial artist with many secrets. In a society where the expectations for relationships are changing drastically, they will have to overcome their personal flaws and learn what it is they truly want out of each other before making the same mistakes again.
1. Universal Truths in Changing Times

**This is going to be a rewrite of a story I started four years ago. It's partially based on the story of Andy Warhol and other individuals who were part of a place known as the Factory, where many films, music, and artwork were created in 1960s New York. I've written this to see how Jane Austen's characters, especially Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, would be like as part of both the pop art scene and the sexual revolution of the sixties, so expect some mature content. Also, in sticking true to the facts regarding Warhol and other Factory members, Mr. Darcy will be bisexual in this story, but he will still get together with Elizabeth at some point. There will also be some shift in setting between the sixties and present day, for reasons which you'll soon learn for yourselves. I hope you'll all enjoy this new version of the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pride and Prejudice or anything else by Jane Austen**

 **Ch 1: Universal Truths in Changing Times**

 **Netherfield, New Jersey, June 1967**

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the 1960s marked a major shift in the way relationships worked between men and women.

While twenty years before, marriage seemed to be the only suitable way for them to be brought together permanently, with rigid expectations of the hardworking man and the refined housewife being imposed upon teenagers as soon as their parents found it suitable for them to learn about their places within society, this decade seemed to bring in the loosening of these old traditions and to usher in a new era in which men and women could go their own way when it came to romantic relationships.

Whether this was a good or bad thing, however, depended very much upon the individuals and their choices. And twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Bennet hadn't been making the wisest choices, which was part of the reason why she decided to move to New York City and join one of the most talked about places in the art world: William Darcy's Pemberley Studio.

On the day she was to leave, her whole family, even her older sister Jane, who was heavily occupied by preparations for her college graduation festivities, accompanied her to the busy train station in downtown Netherfield.

Mrs. Susanne Bennet, who carried nothing except a black leather purse while most of her family carried at least one of Elizabeth's belongings, used this as an opportunity to remind her second oldest daughter of what she believed truly mattered for young women. "My dear Lizzie, once you do find work in the city, remember to always fix yourself up in the mornings and keep your work clothes neat and washed. No man would even bother looking at you if they saw the way you go running around in the mornings with your clothes all wrinkled up and your face without a trace of makeup. You could manage to win over your boss if you do this, and just imagine all that could follow!"

"Please don't go around giving her ideas, Susie," Mr. Maxwell Bennet, who was holding his daughter's red suitcase, said. "After all the trouble Elizabeth had with the Peck boy, do you really thank another boyfriend is the right thing for her right now? And you better not hope she wins over the boss. If they ever do manage to have relationships with the girls they hire, marriage is usually the last thing on their minds."

"Max, watch what you're saying! Katie and Lydia are right beside us," Mrs. Bennet said, acting as if her twin daughters were still six instead of seventeen. The twins, who both carried armfuls of _Seventeen_ and _Vogue,_ responded by rolling their eyes and turning up their noses, imitating each other perfectly.

Except for the fact that Lydia was three inches taller than Katie, those two girls were alike in almost every way, with the same dark hair that went down to their upper backs, the same love for bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, the same careless attitude towards school and work, and the same obsession with boys which their mother had pushed towards them since they were entering kindergarten. Mrs. Bennet deemed Lydia to be the best amongst the two, since she was taller and better at getting the attention of the boys than Katie was, but Elizabeth sometimes felt as if they didn't have a trace of individuality and would always follow each other's silly ways even if it got them in trouble.

"I think you're both acting perfectly ridiculous," Elizabeth said to her parents, speaking up for the first time since their arrival at the train station. "Just because I had one disastrous relationship with a boy doesn't mean I'm doomed to have another one. And Mother, no matter what you say, I'm not going around husband hunting in New York. It's not 1945 anymore. Most women nowadays aren't rushing around to get married in their early twenties and have four or five kids."

"Now who said anything about having a dozen children? I just want you to be comfortably settled with someone to support you, just as I was after marrying your father when I was nineteen. With you having dropped out of college, you won't be able to at least have a teaching job to fall back on as Jane will, and the longer you wait for a man to propose, the less interested they'll be in you," Mrs. Bennet insisted.

"Very encouraging, Mother," Elizabeth said sarcastically.

As far as her parents knew, she was going to be joining an old college friend and looking for a job as a secretary or typist in one of the big Manhattan business centers. There was no way they would approve of her taking part in the Pemberley Studio, which was said to attract dozens of young bohemians who were searching for a quick way to gain fame as artists, actors, or musicians. Since Elizabeth had been involved in theater throughout her whole time in school, and even planned on majoring in it while in college (which her father had disapproved of but which her mother had encouraged because she'd believed it might help her win over a successful actor by the time she graduated), she planned to demonstrate her acting talents to William Darcy and eventually win a role in one of his experimental films, which dealt with everything from men who slept for six hours to young adventurous women meeting up with friends at cafes.

"Now Mother, many secretaries manage to do very well for themselves if they work hard enough. Lizzie has always been quite self- sufficient when she's motivated, even more so than myself sometimes, so I think she'll be just fine over there on her own," Jane said, having always been the peacekeeper in the family.

In fact, Jane was the only one who knew where Elizabeth was actually going. It was she who knew most of her sister's biggest secrets, from how she'd switched her after school activity from Girl Scouts to children's theatre at the YMCA when she was nine years old, to how she started seeing an aspiring actor from Vancouver named Orson Peck (or so he claimed his name was upon meeting Elizabeth) at her college, believing herself to have finally found the man she loved, and going so far as to lose her virginity to him. And when their relationship ended six months later, with Orson threatening to blackmail her by giving a false history of her past relationships to other students to clear his own name if he was threatened with expulsion, Elizabeth decided to drop out as a result, going over to Jane's college twenty miles away and giving her the whole story behind the awful relationship. Unlike their parents, Jane rarely resorted to making hasty judgements on people based on their mistakes.

And a year later, after Elizabeth dedicated herself to working as a waitress at a diner (a job which she hated), she'd eagerly shown Jane an article in _Vogue_ about William Darcy. Despite being only thirty-one, he was already considered the most influential living artist in America, having become famous after some of his work, much of which featured multiple images of the same person or figure, was displayed in a special exhibition in 1962. In a large picture of him standing next an Elizabeth Taylor painting, he was dressed all in black, with his eyes kept hidden by large sunglasses. Jane thought he looked a bit handsome, but Elizabeth could only think about how mysterious he seemed, as if there was something he wanted to hide from the world.

According to Darcy, these figures and persons, which included Hershey Bars and soup cans and people like Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, were supposed to represent the country's obsession with advertising and celebrities. "We see all these glamorous stars and seemingly boring objects every day in our own homes, whether through boxes we buy at the grocery store and posters we hang on our bedroom walls, or through television in the form of commercials, movies, and shows. We love the celebrities, but think little of the boxes and cans once we've finished eating out of them, and yet we see them both so many times that we lose track, sometimes even side by side during commercials. I could probably count how many times I see my aunt or sister on a regular basis, but I can never remember how often I've seen Liz Taylor's pictures, or a Hershey's bar, because they can appear anywhere," he said as part of the magazine's interview.

Of course, it was the final part calling for Darcy's need for new actors for the movies he was working on and even including the Pemberley Studio's address which had excited Elizabeth. The article didn't include any information on pay or even how long the actors would be wanted, but it did say that living accommodations would be provided for by Darcy himself, since Pemberley Studio included several spare rooms which he was willing to let actors and other artists use for free so long as they were working with him.

"I have to go there, Jane. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Elizabeth told her sister once she'd read through the whole article.

"But Lizzie, how much do you even know about William Darcy and all these other people who work for him? It doesn't sound like a good idea to join a group without having a good idea of what you'll be getting yourself into," Jane said.

"Everyone there will be working towards a creative career, with most of them just getting started like myself. As far as all these articles are concerned, everyone at the Pemberley Studio is serious about what they want to do, and some of them turn out becoming very successful, like the stars of Darcy's most recent film _Afternoons in a Diner._ One Hollywood director liked it so much that he hired two of the actresses to star in a high budget romantic comedy coming out next year. If that's how it goes, then I think it must be the right place for me," Elizabeth said.

"Mother and Dad aren't going to be pleased about this," Jane insisted.

"I'll tell them that I'm meeting up with a friend in the city, which is actually my backup plan if this somehow fails. But what I can't do is stay here in the suburbs waiting on customers while Mom goes around trying to pick a husband for me. The world's changing right before our eyes, and I want to be a part of it. If I don't, I feel as if there won't be anything else I can do. I might just be doomed to be a failure forever," Elizabeth said.

"Well, if you say so," Jane said. "But don't go around making any hasty decisions like you did in college. If you're serious about being an actress, you have to know for sure what your priorities are, and you must push aside anything you know will get in your way."

And as Elizabeth said her last goodbyes to her family, she didn't have any plans to stray away from Jane's advice. For one thing, she assumed that most of her time at Pemberley would be spend working. At college, half of the coursework consisted of reading thirty pages of the textbook and writing reports on theatrical productions held at the local theater, with only a portion of the classes dedicated to actual performing. She'd gotten bored with this routine so quickly that it was impossible to say no to having a relationship with the first guy who showed interest in her. But if she was actually performing, she would give her whole heart to giving a perfect performance, with little else in mind.

Also, according to rumors, Darcy wasn't out there looking for relationships either. In fact, he'd even admitted to still being a virgin in a past interview. The media always portrayed him as a very private person, and besides the occasion photo of him with one of his stars, the only woman he was ever seen with on a regular basis was his younger sister Georgiana. So, if her mother ever asked her if she managed to win over her boss, Elizabeth could easily say that it was out of the question.

"Goodbye, Lizzie! Be sure to send a letter soon telling me what the men you're working with are like," Mrs. Bennet said.

"Be sure to save as much as you can so you can come visit us, and please don't follow your mother's advice," Mr. Bennet said.

"And get us tickets for any of the rock concerts while you're at it," Lydia said.

"Yeah. And be sure to buy them early or else they sell out," Katie said.

"Good luck, Lizzie," was all Jane said through the rest of the family's chorus.

Elizabeth gave a small wave and called out, "Goodbye, everyone!" before walking into the train, but with that being done, all thoughts about her family were set aside for the moment. She was about to take the first step towards becoming an actress, and she didn't think she could recall being more excited for anything else in her life.

She could only hope that no troublesome relationships would get in her way once again.


	2. Ordinary Folks

**Chapter Two: Ordinary Folks**

Twenty years ago, no one would have seen Willian Darcy, a frail and quiet boy from a working- class neighborhood in Pittsburg, as the next major artist in the country.

When he'd been in school, his teachers would always talk about how the best jobs boys could get were as doctors, lawyers, and bosses, if not soldiers, who were considered the country's greatest heroes upon the end of the war. Even when he'd been young, no teacher ever encouraged artistic careers of any kind, not even the kind-hearted women who'd been the art and music teachers. William had never understood if this was because of a general disdain of the arts, especially since some of his teachers in high school associated them with communism (despite all the news going on about artists being censored in the Soviet Union back in the early days of the Red Scare), or because many of his classmates' parents were factory workers, domestic servants, or shopkeepers, which probably made teachers encourage their students towards more practical career paths. William's own father had worked through several odd jobs until his death in a car accident when William was twelve, so he figured this was probably what they thought was best for him as well.

William had also spent much of his grammar school years on his own. While most of his classmates would form groups and engage in games involving running and hiding behind the slides or swings during recess, he would often stay behind sketching animals and his classmates while sitting alone under an old apple tree. Because of complications he'd had as an infant, he was also prone to every childhood illness in the book, and he'd caught a heavy fever one winter at the age of nine which nearly killed him. Upon returning to school, he'd been ten pounds lighter, as pale as a ghost, and his nose had remained slightly red from the cold which had made way for the fever. But instead of feeling sorry for him, his classmates teased him more than ever before, calling him Ghost Boy and stepping away from him whenever he got near them, telling him that they might catch his sickness if he got too close.

In fact, the only person who seemed to encourage his artistic talents was his Aunt Katarina, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, who'd been taking care of William and his sister Georgiana along with her own daughter Anna ever since their mother's death from childbirth when William was five. In her eyes, her grandson was the family's future, and she did everything to help support him, from giving him his own work space in the family's apartment to setting aside money from her job as a laundress so that he could have art lessons after school.

She'd been living on her own with Anna, who was seven years older than William, for as long as anyone in the family could remember. William's father had said that her husband died when Anna was an infant, but Anna herself told him that her mother had gotten an annulment when she was a year old for reasons she would never admit to. But despite this, everyone who knew Katarina, from their neighbors to fellow church goers, highly respected her as a woman capable of getting by on her own despite so much personal hardship. However, her support for her nephew's talents always left them shaking their heads, wondering why a woman so practical couldn't encourage the boy towards a more conventional career path. After all, stories of Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso gave them the impression that the artist's life was one of either struggle or immorality, something no decent relative should ever want for a child.

But despite all this, here he was, living in a fancy apartment in Manhattan and with his own personal studio not far from home, where both established and aspiring artists of all kinds came over to visit. Many of the aspiring artists, especially if they were working on one of William's films, could reside in special rooms set up in the studio for a certain number of months as they tried saving up money to find their own place.

Right now, he was working on a painting of Dusty Springfield as the radio blasted "Light My Fire", the song of the summer. He smiled as the song reached its lengthy instrumental part, which never failed to get him energized. Some of his friends claimed to find their inspiration through marijuana, heroin, or acid, but for William, the rebellious voices of current rock stars and their guitars were much more effective. It helped that they came without that sick and sluggish feeling that was always obvious in his friends after a night of getting high.

He was soon interrupted by a knocking on the door, followed by his sister's cheerful voice calling out, "Hey, Will! Are you still busy?"

"Always am, Gigi, but you know how flexible artists can be about their work," William answered, his voice coming out as high-pitched as always. This had been yet another thing he'd get bullied for when he was a boy, with many of the kids whispering, "What a fairy" whenever he spoke up in class. However, it had never bothered Georgiana, who saw her brother's effeminate features as something sweet rather than devious.

"I take that to mean I can come in, right?" Georgiana asked.

"I think you already know the answer to that," William said.

"Oh, yes!" Georgiana said, practically running into the large room where William worked on all his paintings. She then seated herself in one of three armchairs her brother had set up, and placed her feet on a velvet-colored pillow to get more relaxed.

"Now Gigi, did you just come in here to sit around lazily or to give me a helping hand?" William asked, pretending to sound annoyed even as he smiled with pleasure at having his sister there.

"Neither," Georgiana said. "I just wanted to talk to you for a while."

"I'll take that," William said. "So, what is it now? Is Aunt Katrina getting on your nerves again for your work ethic, or is Mary Anne begging for money again?"

"Will, you're terrible at guessing things," Georgiana said. "Have you already forgotten about the new girl that's supposed to come to Pemberley soon?"

"The new girl? You mean Elizabeth Bennet?" William asked.

"Of course, I mean her."

William had gotten a letter, several photos, and a tape from a high school play from this girl two weeks before. At first, upon learning that she was just a middle class suburban girl with an ordinary family life, he hadn't been impressed by her. Some of the most interesting members of Pemberley studios had rather difficult background stories. The Dashwood sisters, for instance, were the daughters of a former British heir who'd been cut off from his family after his second marriage to a lower- class woman. When he'd died when Mary Anne was eleven and Eleanor fourteen, their mother had to work as a seamstress for her in- laws, while Mary Anne ended up being expelled from three different schools for reckless behavior.

However, his early doubts had been eliminated after seeing what she could do. The tape, which featured a production of _Macbeth,_ had Elizabeth brilliantly portraying Lady Macbeth, pulling off both her ruthless ambition and chilling insanity with more passion than you normally saw in high school girls. All of those centuries -old words were pronounced correctly and recited with the intense emotion required for a believable performance, and Elizabeth appeared to be enjoying herself the whole time.

Her pictures were almost as impressive, showing a cheerful young woman with light brown hair, a tall height, and a slender figure. She looked decent in nearly everything she wore, whether it be a dress, a miniskirt, or just a blouse and jeans. Although she still had a way to go before she could look like a model, there was no denying that she was pretty. William especially liked her honey brown eyes, which were always either smiling or giving off a warm look, even in those pictures where her expressions were more serious.

"Well," William said after a moment of silence, "For a girl who seems so ordinary, she's quite talented based on her tapes. Of course, we'll have to see her in person to understand how she's really like, but she does seem promising so far."

"Being ordinary is the ultimate sin for you, isn't it?" Georgiana asked with a smile.

"Not necessarily. It's just that ordinary folks aren't really the type of people who'd like the sort of lives people lead at Pemberley," William explained.

His classmates certainly hadn't helped in this, many of whom did indeed go on to either follow their parent's paths or become one of those prosperous career men who moved in flocks to the suburbs. They'd sensed early on that he was a freak, and much of their accusations would start to haunt William in high school, especially when he started realizing that he felt similar feelings for men as he did for women.

And much to his shock, some of the boys he found himself becoming attracted to were those same ones who'd called him a fairy back in grammar school. While some of them had stopped bullying him over the years, all of them maintained a sense of machoism that they exhibited through sports or casual horse play. William would occasionally sit in on practices, hiding behind a tree and with a sketchbook in hand, and watch the boys run around and tackle each other with a strange sense of fascination. And when watching movies, he'd be as mesmerized by the stunning looks of the male leads and their romantic dialogue as he'd be by that of the female leads.

But of course, you couldn't talk about these feelings. And in some cases, even if he never uttered a word about them, people would still suspect his tendencies. Or at least that had been the case with Carol Goldberg, the girl he'd taken to homecoming his senior year. She'd been a friend he made in his art classes who was a little shy and awkward like himself, but also quite smart when given the chance. She also came from a strict Jewish family, who'd only permitted her to go to the dance with him upon meeting him and concluding that he didn't appear to be that negative of an influence.

Carol had been quite beautiful that night, wearing her curly brown hair down and a blue Cinderella style dress that she'd made herself, and kept giving William these nice smiles that made it obvious she was glad to be there.

But once they were at the dance, William couldn't keep his eyes away from the other people there, including several of the boys, who looked better than ever with their black suits, suede shoes, and neatly combed hair. They were always polite towards their dates, saying things like "You look amazing tonight, Emily," or "Would you care to dance with me now, Jean?" More than once, Darcy wished that one of them would come up to him and say something just as nice to him.

"Hey, William," Carol had said after a while, nudging him gently on the shoulder. "Do you want to dance now?"

Carol would later admit she'd gotten uncomfortable when she'd noticed him staring at all those boys and had worried that he might have been ignoring her. At the moment, William had blushed and said, "Actually, Carol, I'm not that great at dancing. I've tried practicing with Georgiana a few times before, but it always comes out being awkward and silly, more like two monkeys wrestling than two people doing the Charleston."

Carol giggled. "I don't think I see anyone here who dances like they could be on a Broadway show, William. In fact, Jean and Bradley probably resemble monkeys the way they're swinging around more so than you ever could. Besides, we're in a dance of all places. Did you really expect us to just sit around all night and drink punch?"

"No, but…"

"Come on, William," she'd protested, becoming more desperate by the moment. The jokes some people still made about him were quite clear to Carol, and she knew if people like Jean and Bradley would see that William was refusing to dance with her, they could possibly shun him in a way they hadn't done so since grammar school.

"Okay, you win," William said with a sigh, reluctantly getting up from his seat and walking up to the dance floor with Carol.

Their dancing was almost as bad as William had thought it would be. Several times, he found himself stepping on Carol's toes, and whenever they tried to swing each other, they'd bump into each other's arms and elbows, with William narrowly avoiding giving Carol a black eye at one point when he tried getting her head to go under his arm. But despite how awful they were doing, Carol insisted that they stay dancing. And so, they spend half the time tapping their toes at a far distance from each other, getting several stares from onlookers along the way.

Carol had finally requested to sit down after getting a blister on the back of her foot. William had helped her stick a napkin under her shoe to make it better, but it kept bothering her throughout the night. And so, the rest of their time at homecoming was passed by drinking punch and engaging in awkward small talk. They managed to get a decent homecoming picture along the way (which William still had hanging on his bedroom walls), but otherwise, it was far from being the best night of their lives.

A couple days later, as they were walking alone from the library and talking about how awkward that night had been, Carol had asked William if he believed he was homosexual.

"What makes you think that?" William had asked her. He'd been shocked that this would have crossed her mind at all, not only because some girls he knew (and several boys as well) seemed so naïve about sex, but also because Carol rarely brought up things that were this taboo.

"William, I saw the way you were looking at some of the boys, and the only man I've ever seen look that way at other men is my uncle, who's never been married and whom everyone in my family knows is homosexual. He's been a black sheep almost his whole life around our community, but at least my parents try acting decently around him. They say that after knowing about his condition for several years, they understand it's not something he has control over, and even if homosexuality is something wrong, he still deserves support from our family because no one else will give it to him," Carol said. She then went on to give more details she'd observed about William, and how worried she'd been that others would start teasing him for it, explaining why she'd stayed dancing with him for so long.

"Well, I don't know if I'm that way, Carol. Sometimes I feel more attracted to women, and other times I feel more attracted to men, to be honest," William admitted, expressing his feelings for the first time to another person.

"If you don't say a word to anyone about my uncle, then I promise I won't say anything about you. My father says they've recently trying to treat homosexuality with shock treatments and other stuff that probably won't help at all. I wouldn't want something like that to happen to either of you," Carol said.

"I promise not to tell anyone," William said.

Carol smiled and shock his hand, and neither of them broke their promise.

For that reason, one of the first famous paintings William ever made was one of Carol and him dancing awkwardly at homecoming, which was titled "Teenage Mistakes" and won second place in the New York Young Artists Festival of 1961. Two years later, as his fame was increasing, he'd send a copy of this painting to Carol Goldberg, with a note asking if she remembered how weird her first date had been. Carol had responded with a letter equally as friendly, saying that she could never forget a person as weird and fun as William Darcy was, and ended it by saying, "And by the way, my uncle's a big fan of your work. If you see the two of us at next year's World's Fair, be sure to say hello to us and to introduce everyone to me as the girl who can't dance."

And so, although William Darcy didn't hate everyone that was ordinary, he doubted that all ordinary people could be as understanding as Carol Goldberg had been towards him.


End file.
